Sunday, December 04, 2005

More Fables of the Reconstruction

(PLEASE READ SATURDAY'S POST IF YA HAVEN'T ALREADY!)

Quickly -- an "anonymous" reader left me this message re: UFOs and the Bushies' (alleged) plan to build a moon laser:

"Governments deny the space aliens because they and their UFOs are creations of Satan sent to hell to fool alot of people; except for CIA and NASA that made a deal to teleport (them) to other planets, etc. to make sure we are all in the same boat.

A United States Army officer was charged yesterday with smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen cash from Iraq and using some of it to buy machine guns, grenade launchers and other illegal arms that were later found in a garage in North Carolina.

He is the third person to be arrested in a widening investigation by a special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The officer, Lt. Col. Michael Brian Wheeler, 47, of Amherst Junction, Wis., was a reservist called to active duty in Iraq, where he helped supervise millions of dollars in reconstruction projects from September 2003 until July 2004, according to a United States Army official and the affidavit describing the charges, unsealed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia.

The money that was said to have been stolen and smuggled was intended for those reconstruction projects, including a library, a police academy and a center to promote democracy.

Ha.

What...no school?

Why do I get the weird feeling that this "money" was really "intended" for dudes with close ties to the Bushies?

The affidavit hinted that others were likely to be charged in what officials say was an extensive bribery, kickback and smuggling scheme based in an office of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Hilla, south of Baghdad. The authority was the American administrative apparatus that ran Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

The CPA was also the "administrative apparatus" that LOST $8-9 BILLION DOLLARS during the above mentioned reconstruction.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- January 31, 2005 -- Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday.

An inspector general's report said the U.S.-led administration that ran Iraq until June 2004 is unable to account for the funds.

*

"The CPA did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractual controls to ensure that [Development Fund for Iraq] funds were used in a transparent manner," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., director of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Clearly.

Back to the first article:

Two weeks ago, Robert J. Stein Jr., a civilian occupation official, was charged with receiving as much as $200,000 a month in bribes from an American contractor, Philip H. Bloom, to steer construction contracts to companies controlled by Mr. Bloom, who was also charged with crimes.

The affidavit says Colonel Wheeler used his military passes to avoid customs searches as some of the cash was transported out of Iraq and back to the United States, receiving at least $100,000 himself.

Once he returned to the United States, Colonel Wheeler also bought a cache of illegal weapons, including more than 30 machine guns, 4 grenade launchers, high-caliber pistols and silencers, the affidavit said.

TO DO WHAT?!

Sack Wake Forest?

Colonel Wheeler allegedly had the weapons shipped first to Fort Bragg, N.C., before taking them to a hotel room, where Mr. Stein picked them up and took them to his garage near Fayetteville, N.C.

Youch.

Sounds like Colonel Wheeler was gettin' ready to go Rambo on somebody.

1 Comments:

I know that Phil Bloom was given all of the contracts in Southern Iraq and that even though he is in Federal Custody now, the US Embassy continues to do business with him through his compnay GBG in Iraq.

Phil Bloom has ongoing contracts for more than $7 million in the Green Zone, and his concrete company (GBG)is the main supplier of concrete for all our embassy projects. He also has huge contracts in operation at the Baghdad airport....

Why is he being allowed to continue making so many millions, when poor Iraqis, who have yet to be paid by GBG for their work, cannot enter the green Zone safely to complain about him?

Is it not against our regulations and laws for companies who do not pay Iraqis a fair wage (or no wage at all, in his case) to remain on a list of contractors able to work with the US?

I have inside knowledge on this and would love to reveal what I know, but first want to know if there are real people out there who want to know it.